The transfer of Douglas Luiz to Aston Villa during the summer was one that filled me with excitement, seeing the Brazilian join from Manchester City for £15m. Whilst at the time he was a relatively unproven quantity in English football, he was admired a considerable amount by City manager Pep Guardiola:

“He would be here if the work permit was possible but it wasn’t. He is at Aston Villa. We have an option to bring back”.

If it wasn’t for the issue with his work permit, it looks like Luiz could have found himself donning the sky blue for City:

“I think he was happy here. The last season in the states he was really good”. Clearly it didn’t work out that way for Luiz.

It was announced by Jack Lang of The Athletic that Luiz had been called up to the National team.

Reflecting on Luiz’s time at Villa so far, despite the rocky start that’s inevitable when a foreign player comes to the Premier League, Luiz seems to have acclimatised to life in England.

Scoring a few screamers has helped the midfielder too, gaining trust from both his team mates and the fans. At this time he’s having a goal of the season competition with himself!

Douglas however has been a victim of circumstance, despite his two near identical curled efforts against Bournemouth and Norwich, he’s been unable to beat out the “Marvelous” Nakamba to the position at the base of the midfield.

Does the call up come as a surprise? Somewhat. Regardless, it’s clear to see Luiz has an abundance of talent, the potential is defiantly there.

The announcement however filled me with a child-like excitement, Luiz might become Aston Villa’s first senior Brazilian national team player. Just let that sink in. This same excitement I’m feeling is the same excitement I got when playing with Adriano on PES 6. Luiz has the opportunity to play for the Samba Boys in the iconic yellow jersey and I couldn’t be more excited to see that.